Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)
SÛRAH XLVI
Al-Aḥqâf, “The Wind-curved Sandhills,” (a formation which will be familiar to all desert travellers, and which especially characterised the region in which the tribe of A‘âd were said originally to have lived), takes its name from a word in v. 21 and is the last of the Ḥâ Mîm group.
It belongs to the middle group of Meccan Sûrahs, with the exception of v. 10, vv. 15–18, and v. 35, which were revealed at Al-Madînah.
The Wind-curved Sandhills
1. Ḥâ. Mîm.1
2. The revelation of the Scripture is from Allah the Mighty, the Wise.
3. We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them save with truth, and for a term appointed. But those who disbelieve turn away from that whereof they are warned.
4. Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Have ye thought on all that ye invoke beside Allah? Show me what they have created of the earth. Or have they any portion in the heavens? Bring me a Scripture before this (Scripture), or some vestige of knowledge (in support of what ye say), if ye are truthful.
5. And who is further astray than those who, instead of Allah, pray unto such as hear not their prayer until the Day of Resurrection, and are unconscious of their prayer,
1 See Sur. II, v. 1, footnote.
